zil

This is a fabulous accomplishment! Now do it again - go another 20 hours. Keep repeating that success until it's 21 hours, etc. You can do this - as long as you don't give up. Maybe you missed the part above about how addictive nicotine is? It's going to be hard. You'll cave sometimes. Since we know that, don't let it drag you to "a pit of despair", just quit again. Help yourself out, and don't have cigarettes in your possession / at your home or work. Avoid places that sell cigarettes - I know, that's practically everywhere, but reduce the frequency with which you need to go to such places - pay at the pump rather than inside, get groceries for 2 weeks rather than just 1, etc. Help yourself out more and destroy whatever you haven't already smoked - crush them up, dowse them, and toss the mess into the trash. The pain of the "wasted" money ought to help. Alternately, consider that part of the expense of your addiction recovery. Don't say "I hope", say "I quit". If you cave, say it again and start over. Say it every day, all the time, any time you want to cave, say "No, I quit." Pray constantly, repetitiously, morning, noon, and night. Pray when you want to cave and give thanks each time you don't. Prayer alone may not be enough - it may not even seem like it's helping - but that's because we're impatient. Together with everything else, it will help. Make yourself a plan that utilizes every tool available: Faith Medical help (e.g. the gum or patch and a schedule to ween yourself off these) Other health help - diet and exercise so your body feels as good as it can without the cigarettes Friends / family Make a budget and calculate the savings and what you'll do with it Plan rewards for success Behavior (avoiding the places and people that make it harder, substitution for the smoking, changing routines, recognizing stress and relieving it another way, etc.) If aversion works for you, go to the library and study the various nasty things that happen to smokers Whatever I'm missing Will power alone isn't enough. You need the plan, all the help you can get, and imagination (imagine yourself as someone who doesn't smoke, someone who doesn't cave to the temptations, someone who starts over if he does, etc.). Imagination is at least as powerful as will, and generally more powerful. Don't give up, start over.

Right?

Make up your mind, in the Caribbean or on an island? ::SMH::

I wouldn't submit to it even if it existed. Meanwhile, does your poor missionary son know what a hateful soul his father is? Sigh. I may have to just not mention you lest he die of embarrassment.

Swearing is an interesting thing. Background: In Russian, if you want to say, "Let's go!" you literally say, "We left." Or, if you want to say, "I'm leaving.", you literally say, "I left." One of the most vulgar things you can say in Russian (or so I was told while there) uses the same verb and the same tense - past tense used as imperative - thus, literally translated into English: "You1 left..." Even in Russian, they often leave off the last to words2 - everyone knows from the tone what you mean. 1The familiar, singular "you", not the formal/plural "you". 2I don't think we have a vulgar enough way to say it, even with swear words. Go figure. Despite the usage being imperative, this is not the same way as you would command someone to "get out" (at least not that I ever heard, though I suppose it would be grammatically correct if you added the "out of here" to it). Now back to your regularly scheduled vacation.

So, instead of planning a vacation that takes you away from the hated winter, you plan a vacation which takes you away from the desirable summer? Baffling. PS: The dinosaurs are replicas - the real ones left a long time ago. (Better to face reality now than be disappointed when you arrive.)

Said the guy who just used it!

Sing it, Stevie!

I plan to tell him you said that. And it'll only cost me $1.15 (for up to one ounce, $2.13 if I feel like getting wordy or doodley).

Linguine. Sticks. Linguine sticks. Linguistics...

But do either of you accept Medicaid?

You won't even find it in an encyclopedia, nor a dictionary. Logic dictates you either meant transmutation or transformation. Or maybe something involving Kafka and the pharaohs of Egypt from the 18th dynasty...

Belt of Scotch (duct tape):

Would you think it a disaster if a corresponding number of formerly middle-income people can no longer afford healthcare (or have now become low-income people) because costs skyrocketed to ridiculous amounts at the mere mention of "Obamacare"? Because that is what happened - for every online person claiming they can suddenly afford healthcare, I can find an in-person human standing face-to-face with me who will tell you that their healthcare expenses are to up 5 times or more compared to before "Obamacare" became a word - and I'm one of them. I have never encountered an in-person person who says their healthcare costs have decreased or that healthcare is now more affordable - I only ever see / hear of those people online.

You seem to think that I'm not going to write a letter and send it to that mission office. You appear not to understand that I don't care what they might think when they see the letter is addressed to Elder Askandanswerson, AKA Son of the (self-named) Enlightened One. As it so happens, I have some 52gsm Tomoe River paper (that's thin, like Bible paper) and airmail envelopes (that are probably 25-30 years old).

Or maybe we go Scandinavian: Elder Askandanswerson. Yes, I like that better.

So, what, we address our letters to "Elder son-of-askandanswer"?

Not only do I not get it, I don't want to get it.

Welcome @sethjahnsen!

This is because the modern education system is designed to beat people into compliant cubicle-dwellers who do what they're told without question. 11-year-olds haven't been completely beaten into compliance yet.

That's because they were too delicate to survive here.

At a stake training last night, our Stake President presented a slightly different view, and I think we will all be benefited by adopting it and helping others to adopt it: 1) Home-Centered, Church-Supported Many members currently have this reversed - they think what they do at home supports the Church - they study for lessons, as instructed, they serve in callings to support the Church, they give talks for Church. Church is the 3-hour block + activities + callings, and what they do outside that time is to prep for that time. The proper view is that their faith and religion are meant to be centered in their home. They are to learn, study, and teach at home. When they come to Church (the building or the events), whether as an "attendee" or as one called to perform specific functions, they do so to gain support for what they're doing at home, and to support others in what they are doing at home. 2) A pattern from 3 Nephi: In 3 Nephi 17, which takes place after the Lord's initial appearance and teaching of the Nephites (day 1), he says this: ...there's only so much they can take in at once, so he tells them to go home, ponder, pray and prepare. Then, what happens in chapter 18? The Lord institutes the Sacrament. The SP suggested this as a pattern for the new schedule and curriculum - We learn only so much at a time, then go home to ponder, pray, and prepare (to receive the Sacrament); then we come together again. And this pattern repeats. He also pointed out what happens in chapter 19 - that the people, all excited and converted, go seek others to bring "on the morrow". This too should be part of the pattern (even if not an overnight change). To me, this relates to one of the best things we can get from these changes, if we so choose: customization. Instead of sitting through a lesson that may not relate to you at the moment, may not be what you need, or similar, you can determine your own focus for your study.

Hmm. You know, I made "The Corner Cubicle" (a page on facebook) so that I could name it as my employer (I wasn't about to put true things on facebook). Mr. Hippo (the stuffed hippo) makes all the posts there, with occasional help from Mr. Grinch. So we could make a page called "The Compound" or "Gator's Compound" or whatever, and have all kinds of fun with it.

Given that you married your cell phone: How could she not see your messages?

Handy, but makes for boring formulas. The 7 had all kinds of odd potential, but not if everything is 7. I had a blog post on my website (before it crashed) all about balance - amidst my examples demonstrating how balance was a hard thing to accomplish was Hebrew National hot dogs - you get 7 per package. But buns come 8 per package. Maybe you can eat enough hot dogs to balance that out, but not me - one package of hot dogs every 2 years is about all I can handle. 56 would make me puke. This reminds me that I need to fire up the old server and transfer all those old articles to my current server. Maybe tomorrow.